Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Grate cinnamon over the top and add two straws.

On Sunday night, Andrea and I headed over to Ben Sandrof's Sunday Salon. For my first drink, Ben mentioned that a drink he created for a previous Tales of the Cocktail, called the Cuban Anole, had just made the menu of Manhattan's Painkiller bar. The Cuban Anole is a variation on the Mai Tai that substitutes cinnamon syrup for the standard orange curaçao, and from that description it seemed like a good starting point for the night.

The grated cinnamon garnish on the Cuban Anole donated a glorious aroma which prepared the mouth for the spiced syrup. Indeed, the sip was like a cinnamon Mai Tai that lacked some of the citrus complexity; in addition, the variety of rums added another layer of intrigue on the classic. Most noteworthy was the Neisson which proffered hints of funkiness that worked well with the cinnamon. The Neisson also provided a salty or mineral element to the sip.

I used Agua Libre, St. George Spirits new California rhum agricole for the agricole blanc. It has a pretty aggressive profile that bowled over the other rums, so on second round I matched it with Smith & Cross for the Jamaican and Mt. Gay XO for the aged Barbados. Have to say, best mai tai I've had since mixing up the Beachbum Berry "$100 mai tai" recipe.

who? what?

The euphemisms are getting a bit stale, suffice to say: four people in Boston -- two of whom are much more prolific writers than the other two (including the originator of this blog, who has no excuse apart from laziness) -- who drink and tell.

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The 2017 collection of 855 drink recipes, bartender tributes, and essays on hospitality from Frederic Yarm, one of the authors of the Cocktail Virgin Slut blog. Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

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